Ipotesi per una mostra, 1963-03

The work consists of a room that cannot be crossed made up of four angular drywall elements and by the same number of glass sheets defining the central portion of the sides, making it possible to glimpse the space inside. The latter is divided by a cross-vault of glazed walls, each of which is made up of three adjacent sheets, of which the one in the middle bears an image (the three-part division reproduces that of the exterior sides of the drywall and glass, that is, it reproduces the perspective towards the inside of a room). The screenprint images each reproduce a different group of viewers, intent on observing “paintings”, evoked by geometric shapes in various formats and dimensions. As a whole, the optical multiplication of the figures and of the squares generates the impression of an exhibition with a crowd of visitors.
Ipotesi per una mostra reformulates in concrete terms the homonymous project conceived in 1963 for a solo exhibition at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome, which was never held, however (hence, the two dates, cf. GPO-0051).1 Just as the public was supposed to find itself before another public, arranged in the second room of the gallery – divided from the first room by a glass sheet – thus constituting the image of an exhibition underway, here as well the public finds itself observing other viewers (in this case virtual ones) of a hypothetical exhibition. 2 And just as in 1963, the two rooms of the gallery are divided by a glass pane, here again the glass sheets inserted in the outer sides separate the real public and the exhibition from the virtual ones.
An exhibition-in-an-exhibition, the work reflects the very reason for an exhibition, meant as the relationship between the viewer and the work: its experience as the kaleidoscopic theatre of the gaze and as the curtain between reality and representation.

1 Also from that project are the cut-out figures of the viewers, taken from front and back shots commissioned from the photographer Mario Sarotto after dressing an anonymous mannequin.
2 In the specific context of the solo exhibition at the Fondazione Prada in 2003 , for which the work was made and where it represented the central focus, the linear profiles of the geometric figures evoke the works actually exhibited: the rhomboid recalls Atlante, 1966 (GPO-0113), the hexagon Ex acto, 1967 (GPO-0133), and so on. In this sense, the work proposed a “register” of the exhibition of which it was an integral part, further enhancing the concept of mise-en-abîme characterizing the work.